"We're not perfect; we're not going for perfection," says Sarah Rice,
co-owner of Through the Music. "We're going for comfort. ... We want
everyone to feel comfortable as an artist or as a viewer here." The new
gallery, located at the back of Turn It Up! (hence the name -- you have to
go through the music to get there), at the corner of Elliot and Main
streets in Brattleboro, does have a homey atmosphere. The inviting
entryway leads to several small rooms that Turn It Up! once used for
storage. A recent visitor compared the space to a rabbit warren, Rice
said. Co-owner Josh Steele sees an analogy to Gallery Walk itself, but in
miniature. "Gallery Walk is about exploring this town -- going down little
hidden alleyways, up stairs and down stairs," he said. "It entertains me
to hear people say, 'Wow, I never knew these rooms were here.'"

While this layout may limit the kinds of pieces that can be displayed,
it keeps the art on a human scale. And that is what Through the Music is
all about. Rice and Steele place no limitations on who can show at the
gallery, though they do expect to attract emergent artists who may have
never had a solo exhibition before. "We don't want to generalize to
younger people," Steele emphasized. "We want [all] people who don't have
the opportunity to show in a more prestigious gallery."

Drawings by Atticus O'Feral
are featured this month.

The relative youth of the co-owners certainly works to the gallery's
advantage, though. The pair have plenty of idealism, and energy to match.
Besides running the gallery, working their day jobs and (in Steele's case)
attending school, they provide support for artists, offering critiques and
helping to write artists' statements and compile portfolios. The gallery
charges minimal exhibitors' fees.

Since it opened in December, Through the Music has displayed work by
seven artists. Digital photographs by Jessie Stewart, who served for two
years as an army medic, explore the loss of people and places to war.
Rachel Brooks' drawings manage to look like animé woodcuts. Color
photographs by Rice and Helen Jones explore dwellings from outside and in,
including several images of a grandmother's possessions after her move
from her own apartment into a nursing home. Through March, the gallery
will feature pen-and-ink drawings by Atticus O'Feral and "photo paintings"
by Benjamin Zeman in collaboration with Cara Downy. Photos of Zeman's
contextualized graffiti make a study of art as ephemera, while O'Feral's
figures exhibit themselves in various states of undeath.

"Photo paintings by Benjamin
Zeman with Cara Downy are
currently being shown.

So far, much of the work at Through the Music has had a fresh feel,
sometimes bordering on raw. But while we are not likely to see a lot of
classical still life at this venue, it would be unwise to try to sum up
the gallery's character in a word, unless the word were "eclectic." Steele
and Rice are reluctant to limit who can show at the gallery even by
artistic style. Their primary goals are to help budding artists bloom and
inspire viewers -- hopefully both at the same time. "I want people to walk
out of the place and say, 'I'm going to pick up my old artwork and start
working on it again'," said Steele. "Everybody's an artist; you just need
to tap into that.

Paula Melton is Assistant Editor of the Gallery
Walk guide and a free-lance publicity writer for the arts.